He couldn't have been sleeping for more than fifteen minutes when he hears it. Struggled breathing. Not Lizzy's for once. He's used to her panicked sounds, anxiety attacks being a part of her life… though they've severely lessened in the past years. She's accustomed to shit happening to her now. He really wishes she wasn't.
Dean doesn't bother opening his eyes from his cat nap in an old, rickety chair in Rufus' cabin basement. With his feet on the wooden table he's sharing, his arms crossed over his chest still, he checks on the kid in the room. "Kevin?"
"This is all too much," his freaked out voice huffs through alarmed panting, sitting at the table with the tablet and a notebook in front of him. "What's happened to my life? I'm just a kid from Michigan. I didn't want to be a Word-keeper!"
Peeking one eye open, Dean can see the telltale signs he's all too familiar with. Now, he has his ways of helping Lizzy through attacks but he's not about to use those on this unknown kid. "Looks like we're brown-baggin' it." He stands up and grabs the nearest paper bag, shakes it open, and hands it to Kevin.
Kevin takes a few deep breaths into it and starts to calm, Dean's hand clamped roughly onto his shoulder grounding him.
"I am not prepared to factor the supernatural into my world view," Kevin speaks into the bag, still huffing and puffing.
"Keep breathing," Dean tells him and Kevin keeps the bag back over his mouth. "Okay, there we go." He pats his back and takes a step away from him when the kid starts to calm. "That's it. That's it. Just breathe. Take it easy." He's done this so many times for Lizzy he's now on autopilot.
Kevin just continues to catch his breath.
"I don't know, man. What can I say?" Dean talks randomly, not sure what else to do. "You've been chosen. And it sucks. Believe me. There's no use asking 'why me?' because the angels… they don't care."
"Most of them, no. They don't."
Dean and Kevin both look to the stairs as Lizzy steps off the last one, a tray in her hands. She smiles at them both, happy to be back in Dean's presence after mending their broken marriage and she's ready to give the poor young prophet a kind, caring presence when that's exactly what he'll need.
"I think maybe they just don't have the equipment to care," Dean adds in, watching her set a tray of grilled cheese sandwiches and two bowls of tomato soup on the table Kevin's working at. "Seems like when they try, it just... breaks them apart."
"Cass does seem to prove that theory right," she sadly responds, the breakdown of sorts Castiel is currently in being proof. She places a bowl in front of Kevin and hands him a spoon. "You have to be starving."
"I feel like puking," Kevin tells her, not all that hungry.
"Give it a try anyways," she points to the bowl and eyes him. He feels like he's being mothered. Kevin dips his spoon into the soup and eats a scoop. "There you go. Gotta keep that strength up for reading, right?"
Kevin sighs with the task at hand. "I don't want to read this. I don't want to be a prophet. I just want to be the first Asian-American President of the United States."
A sweet smile on Lizzy's face with that and Dean tells him, "Then do your homework."
"Homework…" Kevin grumbles, picking up his pen again and looking at the stone tablet. "I didn't even get to my Calculus homework. And my college acceptance essay…." He groans, covers his hands over his face.
"Kevin, I'm really sorry this is happening to you. But we need your help," Lizzy plays it true and honest. "And without your help there won't be a college for you to be accepted to. You just tell us how to kill the head Leviathan and we'll send you packing on home."
"What!?" Dean fires out, thinking she's lying.
"We can't keep him here against his will…."
"The hell we can't!" he yells easily and Kevin starts to freak out again. "Especially if his will is not to die!"
"Die!?" Kevin looks between them.
"Whoa, no, no," Lizzy promises, walking over to him and placing her hands on his shoulders, looking right at him. "Kevin, you're with the good guys."
"You sure?" Kevin asks her, eyes sliding over to Dean for a second before returning to her.
"Very," Lizzy tells him, certain of it. "Do I seem like a bad guy?"
He thinks for a second. "Well… no…."
"And do you think I would've married and had a child with Dean if he was a bad guy?"
"I don't know," Kevin says nervously. "But you do seem smarter than that."
She laughs slightly. "I am. Look, we might be rough around the edges… but we're caught in all this just like you are. And have been for a good chunk of our lives. We're on your side. Ok?"
Kevin nods as he calms his pending anxiety, feeling it recede with her honest words.
"Alright then. Eat up, would you?" she points to the food. She then looks at Dean. "You too."
"That has never been a problem," Dean tells her, picking up a half of a grilled cheese and tearing it in two with excited eyes, the cheese stringing and making his mouth water. "Ugh, I knew you loved me."
She winks as he dunks a section of sandwich into the tomato soup and takes an enormous bite. He moans shamelessly around the food as he chews, eyes closed.
When he opens them he sees Kevin looking at him oddly. "What?"
"One second you're scaring the crap out of me in your sex torture dungeon…."
"It's not a sex torture dungeon!" Dean insists after already telling him this before.
"And then the next you're telling your wife you love her and crushing hard on a grilled cheese."
"It's freakin' delicious," Dean tells him, swallowing the big bite. He then thinks and makes a smirk. "So is she."
Kevin just shakes his head before looking back at the tablet. "Just trying to figure out if I'm being watched over by Jekyll or Hyde."
Dean takes offence for a split second but then brushes it off in favor of hot food.
He retakes his seat at the table and looks over what Kevin is doing. His notes are messy and his face looks highly stressed and scared.
Suddenly, the urge to protect this kid and make sure he's cared for hits. He knows it's the father-thing in him. Ever since Sammy was born he's found himself looking at people, as well as the whole world, differently. He doesn't look at the twenty year old girl in a short skirt and think about how hot she is. Instead he sees a girl that should be home, in proper clothing, where her father can watch her. And the lost kid sitting in front of him, tasked with being a prophet and reading God's Word?
"Hey," Dean tells him, pulling the notebook and tablet a good foot away from Kevin.
"Dude!" Kevin gets upset.
"Take a break," Dean directs in a less harsh tone. "Eat."
"I want to go home," Kevin reminds him. "As soon as I get the information you guys need I can go back to SAT prep and… my future."
"Five minutes isn't gonna change that," Dean insists, sliding the tray of food between them. "L went food shopping two towns over and made this on a stove that only half works. She did that for you. Don't tick her off, huh?"
Kevin sighs and picks up a half of a sandwich. He takes a small bite and chews with the stubborn huffiness of a teenager.
"That'a boy," Dean smirks as he dunks come of his own grilled cheese into his bowl of soup. He bites it, his shoulders lowering as he rolls his eyes. "Oh, yeah…."
On the main floor of the cabin Lizzy gets back to work making more sandwiches and soup for the rest of the group. As she does, frying up sandwiches on a terrible excuse for a stove, Sam draws all over the walls with sidewalk chalk to protect them from whatever they can manage to keep out.
"You seem troubled," Castiel mentions as he watches Sam's tense shoulders move about the room.
Sam turns around to look as Cass as he paces the room while holding Sammy, never being without the child if he can manage since he woke up in the institute. "Me?"
"Yes, you," Castiel tells him as he hands over a bacon shaped teething toy to Sammy, the baby popping it into his mouth instantly to chew and drool all over it. "Of course, that's a primary aspect of your personality, so I sometimes ignore it."
Sam doesn't acknowledge the snicker from the kitchen area as Lizzy listens in. "Okay. Um... right now I'm just wondering about you."
"What about me?" the angel asks. "You're worried about the burden I lifted from you?"
Sam nods slightly as he steps away from the wall to speak honestly to him. "I think I was done for… or I know I was." He looks at Castiel with hardened eyes. "Do you see Lucifer?"
"I did at first," Castiel answers, bouncing Sammy. His sights always come back to the little boy every so many minutes. "But that was... it was a projection of yours, I think, sort of an aftertaste. Now I more see... well, everything."
Lizzy pauses her work as the sandwiches brown to listen in.
"It's funny. I was… I was done for, too," Castiel remains truthful. "I think Elizabeth could attest to that."
"You scared the shit outta me, Cass," Lizzy tells him, spatula in hand as she crosses her arms and leans back into the short counter. "I didn't think you were ever waking up. Don't ever do that to me again, by the way!"
Castiel smiles and looks away with the love she has for him, a love he only assumed she'd never return when he first started watching over her. What a lovely surprise it's been to be a large part of her life and have a true friend in her. "You no longer need to be my caretaker, Elizabeth. I am an angel after all. I have powers."
"Yeah, and so do the angels that want you dead… and they have numbers," she reminds him.
Castiel ignores the comment and gets back on track. "The weight of all my mistakes, all those lives and souls lost, I... I couldn't take it, either. I was… I was lost until I took on your pain. It's strange to think that that helped, but…."
"Cass, I know you never did anything but try to help. I realize that, and I'm grateful. We're all grateful," Sam says and looks to Lizzy for back up.
"Absolutely," she tells him.
"And we're gonna help you get better, okay? No matter what it takes," Sam promises and the angel wrinkles his face with confusion.
"What do you mean, better?" Castiel wonders as he narrows his eyes and tilts his head at Sam.
"He just means… you've changed from the way you used to be," Lizzy tries to help explain as she flips the sandwiches in the large pan. "And we want to help put you back to good old Cass. That's all."
"But… I am Cass," he rebuts. "And now… I see everything. I'm understanding things that before I wouldn't even think to spend time on. Do you know how good fresh rain smells? How absolutely amazing a sunrise is to experience and how fascinating a child, devoid of hate or negativity, can be when just simply…." He looks right at Sammy. "Chewing on plastic food."
Sam smiles right along with Lizzy at this before answering easily. "Yeah. I do."
"But I didn't, not before now," Castiel explains it the best way he can. "All this time, watching Earth and its human inhabitants… and I missed so much of what I was surrounded with. I see it now." His sights land on Lizzy. "I do not need to be fixed. I think I am fixed. I think… good new Cass is better than good old Cass. Don't you?"
Lizzy and Sam hold eye contact for a second with the angel's massive revelations, unsure of what to say at first. Lizzy then smiles.
"Well, if you're happy like this then… who are we to judge?" Sam tells him, understanding.
"Thank you, Sam," Castiel says with the pleasant feeling of being accepted.
"I totally let myself forget how weird this place smelled," Lou bitches grumpily as she marches into the main room of the cabin and ends the lovely conversation where it is.
"You'll survive," Sam tells her, certain of it as he looks at her sitting into a chair at the table.
"You're so sympathetic." Her bite isn't lost on him and he wrinkles his forehead. She sticks her tongue out at him before looking at Lizzy. "Whacha got cooking up?"
"Grilled cheese and soup. Nice and easy."
"Works for me," Lou nods. "You buy beer?"
"Am I a Winchester?" Lizzy jokes and heads for the refrigerator, tossing Lou a can. She catches it.
"Nice," she smiles and cracks it open. She pulls down a good swig before sighing. "Ah, yeah. Needed that."
Sam just huffs a quiet laugh at her. It has been a long day. He doesn't blame her.
"So, what do we do now?" Lou asks the group. "Just let Kevin do his translation thing and wait for the angels to catch up?"
"Looks like," Sam nods as he walks to her and steals her beer, taking a sip before handing it back.
Castiel agrees. "I think we have a good enough head start on Hester to prevent her from finding us…."
And the door of the cabin bursts open, splintering in pieces with the force.
"I may have been wrong," Castiel says in a disappointed tone. He holds Sammy tighter as Hester and Inias walk into the cabin.
Lizzy grits her teeth as she shuts off the burners, her eyes hard on Cass. The angel nods and silently promises her he will protect Sammy.
"You took the prophet from us!?" Hester immediately says with nothing short of fury, eyeing Castiel hard.
The three humans in the room all get on their feet and make their way closer, silently knowing they need to keep Sammy safe and make sure the prophet is out of the angel's grasp.
Dean's feet pound up the stairs to the first floor of the small cabin after the burst he heard. He shuts the basement door behind him and locks it, as if it would help against Heaven's almighty.
Castiel cocks his head and looks at Hester. "I'm… sorry?" He isn't sure what to say to the spiteful angel.
"You have fallen in every way imaginable," Hester fires out, her form ridged with pure hate.
"Please, Castiel," Inias pleads with him, using a less hateful tone. He still believes in Castiel and it's very clear he does. He can't believe there's no goodness left in him after all the years they've been side-by-side. "We have to follow the code. Help us do our work."
"He can't help you," Sam tells Inias, trying to protect the broken angel. "He can't help anybody right now, not in his shape."
"We don't need his help... or his permission," Hester reminds as she nods at Inias. He looks sad for just a split second and he disappears.
"The Keeper goes to the desert tonight."
When Inias returns he brings Kevin with him, having retrieved him from the basement where he was translating the tablet. He has a tight grip on his shoulder and Kevin's face is filled with fear.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Dean steps forward, hands out to show he won't be trying to fight. "Back off. We're actually trying to clean up one of your angel's messes, you know that."
"He's right," Castiel nods, his hand to the back of Sammy's head as he squirms in his hold with the commotion. "An angel brought the Leviathan back into this world, and… and they begged him. They begged him not to do it."
"Look, just give us some time, okay?" Dean asks, hoping to appeal to their goodness… if these angels have any left. "We will take care of your Prophet."
"Why should we give you anything!?" Hester nearly screams while staring down the brazen human. She steps towards him but Dean stands his ground, not retreating one inch. "After everything you have taken from us? The very touch of you corrupts. When Castiel first laid a hand on you in Hell, he was lost! For that, you're going to pay."
Hester takes a few more steps in Dean's direction, angel blade out and fire in her eyes.
On instinct, Castiel stands between Hester and Dean, blocking her way despite Sammy still being in his hold. "Please. They're the ones we were put here to protect."
She somehow finds an even angrier level. "No, Castiel!"
Hester winds up and backhands Castiel hard on the side of his face, the blow making him fall to the ground. Castiel brings his arms around Sammy protectively, keeping him from harm but at the risk of his own self. He hits his head hard on the wooden floor.
"Hey!" Dean gets fired up quickly when his son is put in harm's way.
"Don't you fucking touch him!" Lizzy threatens, her own kneejerk reaction also kicking in. Sam catches her around the waist as she tries to march for the angel she'd never win a fight against.
"Oh, don't worry about your precious Second Coming," Hester snaps as she watches Lizzy get held back by Sam and Dean blocking her path to Castiel. "We aren't here for him. Not yet at least."
Red. All he sees is red.
Not yet.
Dean reaches behind himself and grabs the hilt of the angel blade he had hidden behind his back. First they come here threatening the poor kid that's just been tossed head first into Biblical bullshit. Then they come after his friend. And now the angel mentions coming for his son in the future and Dean's done.
As Sam keeps a tight grip on Lizzy, they all watch as Dean charges Hester, blade out and ready. The moment he gets close to her, Hester grabs his jacket and flings him across the room with ease. He smashes into the table and breaks it apart under him.
"Dean!" Lizzy shouts his name the second he impacts.
"These… people. How could you choose them over us!? Your brothers and sisters!?" Hester screams at Castiel, focusing in on him once more when her outrage gets further fueled with the presence of the humans. "No more madness!" She then swiftly punches him in the face so hard his entire body reacts, Sammy starting to cry with the commotion.
"Hester…" Castiel tries to get her attention as he turns away from her, shielding Sammy with his body. "Please… Samuel…."
"No more promises!" she doesn't stop, grabbing Castiel's trench coat and punching him again.
"You bitch!" Lizzy screams as Sam keeps holding her back. Hurting her angel, putting her son in danger, attacking her husband… she's ready to throw down. "I'll kill you!"
Hester ignores her completely, never fearing a human. "No more new Gods!" she punches him again as Sammy wails in Castiel's arms. She then pulls out her angel blade and raises it high, ready to end Castiel for all his wrong doing.
"Don't! Please!" Lizzy lets out, horrified by the idea of what could be just moments from happening.
"Hester! No!" Inias tries to stop her, a hand to her shoulder. "Please! There's so few of us left."
Hester simply punches him in the face, backing him away. She then looks at Castiel, bloodied on the floor and at her mercy as he holds carefully to the Second Coming. "You wanted free will, Castiel. Now I'm making the choices."
She once more raises her blade but before she can do anything more the point of another shiny angel blade pushes through her chest from behind. She lights up, white shining through her and bursting as she instantly dies. When she falls over, Lou is standing behind her, anger in her expression.
The room stares at her with shock, having been so preoccupied by everything that no one saw her coming.
"Hey, I wasn't gonna just let her kill the fucking dude," Lou says, everyone still surprised. Especially Castiel. Especially when she reaches down and grabs his hand, hauling him to his feet.
"Thank you, Lou," Castiel says, already bouncing a crying Sammy once he's back on his feet. "I was certain before now that you didn't like me all that much."
"I don't," Lou wrinkles her brow, stating it quickly. "You used my soul, remember?"
Castiel sighs. "Quite clearly. And I know how wrong that was now that it is over and my ego is back to its appropriate size." He looks down at the floor. "I truly overreached. I'm very sorry for that."
Lou rolls her eyes. "Whatever. Lizard loves you so… whatever."
Lizzy runs to Dean to check him over, the hit he took quite horrible. "Hot Shot!?" Lizzy asks for him to respond, pulling pieces of table off of him. "Dean, talk to me."
He just groans in pain, pushing off the floor to look at her. "M' fine. Fine."
"How's your head?"
"As banged up as ever," he grumbles, sitting up slowly. "Sammy good?"
"Yes. Cass made sure of it," Lizzy smiles slightly.
"Good," Dean responds with, blinking away the haze.
"Careful," Lizzy tells him as she helps him stand very slowly. He stumbles a little and she knows what that probably means. "Oh, you probably have a concussion."
"Must be Thursday," Dean jokes dryly and leans his weight into her a little. "I'll live."
"Ugh, alright you little jerk," Lou says with levity as she pulls Sammy from Castiel's arms. "Time to quiet down." She pulls him in until his head is over her shoulder, his cheek pressed to her with obvious comfort and security with her, and she pats his back and walks around the cabin. She may be sick of being a full time babysitter and nothing else but that doesn't mean she doesn't still love her nephew to absolute pieces. "I know. She was a scary angel. But Auntie Louie took care of that, didn't she? Shh. Shh, squirt. I got your back…."
Inias and Castiel take a moment as they stare silently down at Hester's unmoving body.
"These are strange times," Inias mentions, hurting with the loss of yet another angel that went rogue with having to make decisions on her own.
"I think they've always been," Castiel comments in return, seeing the world more clearly these days.
"I wish you'd come with us," Inias says with a hand to Castiel's forehead. He heals his wounds from Hester's attack and sighs. He knows Castiel is in no shape to return to Heaven or to get back to any kind of work but it's a wish of his nonetheless. Castiel was a good angel, fuck ups and all. He meant well and good intention is worth something, even now.
"Oh, I'm not part of the Garrison anymore, Inias," Castiel tells him with some sadness.
"I'm sorry."
"Please, don't be," Castiel tells him. "I am a different angel now. I like what I've become. And I need time to think about all the wrong I've done. I need to repent."
"I understand."
"Hey, uh… you think you could give us a little more time with Kevin?" Sam asks, walking to them. Everyone around him is dealing with fallout: Lou is with Sammy, Lizzy is helping a dazed Dean, and the angels are mourning the loss of yet another angel. Sam's had a moment to really look at Kevin. He's frightened. And the kid needs to go home. "If he lets us know how to kill Dick by reading the tablet then you might be able to bring him home instead of the desert. He can go live his life."
"He may need to be called upon for other tasks," Inias mentions. "He could be needed in the future."
"But he might not… right?" Sam questions with hope.
"Well… I guess there is no real way to be sure," Inias answers.
"Then… can you let him go back?" Sam pleads his case. "Maybe just watch him from a distance and let him go on with his life. I mean, the kid could have a pretty bright future in front of him that he's worked really hard for. If you never needed him again then what's the harm in letting him live his life?"
Inias looks over at the frightened prophet, the boy sitting on the couch where Sam left him, the tablet clutched to his chest. The angel is a forgiving one, taking God's word to protect the human race very seriously. "I will take him home. Once he's done."
"Thanks, Kevin," Sam says, genuinely thankful as the new prophet hands over a used spiral notebook, the tablet's translation written in it. "Not a lot of people could have handled this."
"You doing all right there, 'chosen one'?" Dean checks on him as he stands next to Sam.
"Yeah," Kevin lies completely, excited to leave and get back to his life.
"Are you ready, Kevin Tran?" Inias asks, placing a hand on his shoulder. Kevin nods.
"Thank you, Kevin," Lizzy says her goodbye to him with a slight smile. "Really. You changed the game for us. You might have just saved the world."
"Just doing… what I can, I guess," Kevin shrugs, everything he's learned just too heavy to really comprehend.
"You have our numbers. If you need anything at all, you call," Lizzy makes sure he understand.
Kevin once again nods right before Inias flies them off to return the prophet to his family.
The moment he's gone, Lizzy sighs heavily. Dean hears it and drops an arm around her shoulder. "You alright?"
"I'm worried about him," Lizzy says in a sad tone, her arms coming around his middle as she hugs him with concern. "The poor kid… he's just so sweet and clueless."
"He'll be ok," Dean tries to assure her, hugging her back. "Inias has his back. What's better than that?"
"Yeah, I guess," Lizzy drops it, not feeling any better. She looks up at him. "Your head ok?"
"Not really, but I'll live," he promises.
"Maybe we should get you to bed?" Lizzy smirks a little.
"Oh I would love to… but only after we save the world," Dean tells her lightly and leans down to kiss her quickly.
Lizzy laughs a little against his lips and kisses back, humming a little when she dives a bit deeper into the embrace.
"Ok, what the fuck!?"
Dean and Lizzy separate sharply with the yelling and look at Lou from across the room.
"What's up?" Lizzy asks with total confusion.
"What's up!?" Lou asks, fired up. "Is that a fucking joke!? Just last night the two of you were fucking bickering and fighting and I was so over your dumb asses that I was ready to kill you both… now you're all cutesy and kissy and I wanna puke. What… the fuck… is up?"
"Louie… language," Lizzy tells her with horrified eyes, nodding to the blanket on the floor Sammy is playing quietly on.
"Answer the question!" Lou keeps her on track, not caring about her swearing in front of Sammy enough to get distracted from answers.
"Well… uh…" Dean looks at Lizzy and he can't even figure out where to begin with that conversation.
Sam looks between Lizzy and Dean and narrows his eyes. "You're back together." He says it rather than asks as he already knows it's true. One look that their body language and it's obvious to him.
"Yes," Lizzy answers and stops there, also unsure of what else to say.
"When did you have time to do that!?" Lou asks, infuriated that it was so easy after dealing with their hostility for so long.
"Time is… fluid, Lou," Castiel tells her as he sits in the middle of the open cabin floor, playing with Sammy. He hands over a soft stuffed dog that Sammy immediately starts to chew on its ear and the angel keeps his eye line on the boy as he speaks. "I was able to show Elizabeth and Dean that they were supposed to be together within a series of time speculative instances and cross-dimensional, alternate-reality experiences. Even if it felt like several lifetimes for them it all took place within, I'd say, twenty minutes."
Lou just takes a beat to stare at Castiel, completely unimpressed and deadpanned. "Fuck are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about time differentials and manipulating them within the celestial wavelengths I exist." Once more his tone makes it clear that he believes his explanation to be understandable to most. It's not.
"Yeah… ah, we're human, Cass," Sam says lightly, looking to understand.
Castiel nods, remembering he needs to explain in their terms. "I showed them that no matter what reality, what time period or situation they were put into, that they were meant to be together," he spells it out. "Once they saw that they were meant to be and meant to love each other… they've mended their bond."
Lou and Sam stay quiet as they try to decipher what that all means.
"Basically, we were being asshats," Dean simplifies it.
"I coulda told you that," Lou mumbles with an attitude.
"And you did," Lizzy tells her with an edge. "But Cass was able to show us in a way you couldn't. We saw what could have been and… we realize we're better as a team."
"And that's it?" Lou asks, still unable to grasp this all. "It was that easy?"
"Oh, it was far from easy," Castiel says lightly, pulling Sammy into his lap. Both examining the soft, cloth dog and Sammy leans his back against Castiel's front. "These two people are possibly the most stubborn people there are… aside from both you and Sam, that is."
"Ha-ha," Lou fake laughs patronizingly at the diss the angel didn't mean. He was simply being honest.
"It took so much to get them to open their eyes to the truth," Castiel keeps talking, finally raising his eye line to look at Lou several feet away. "But when my brothers and sisters and I worked so hard to form this union… and considering my Father even gave them true, honest love and a bond that is so rare… I couldn't let them just ruin it. You all have been through so much. The little happiness you have shouldn't be taken away… like you and Sam."
She makes a funny face. "What about me and Sam?"
"Well, you both have somehow developed a bond not unlike Dean and Elizabeth's. I'm not sure how, considering my Father and the angels had nothing to do with it, but I can sense it. The word soulmate comes to mind… but it's different somehow. I'm not sure exactly… never seen anything quite like it but I would never wish it to break. And you both have earned that happiness after the lives you've had."
Castiel goes right back into playing with Sammy and ignoring the rest of the room.
Lou's frozen in place. Her body can't move as her wide eyes stare at the angel. Soulmates? What the fuck is this angel talking about?
And Sam's also speechless for a moment. He's done enough research with Lizzy and Dean to know what a soulmate is. It's Heaven's assignment of one person to another to further the destiny of prophesized events. Heaven's… but Heaven didn't assign them that bond. They're just a regular couple.
"Cass," Sam starts, trying to get his mind to work. "I thought all soulmates were Heaven's doing… or at least that's what that Cupid told us."
"Cupids are real?" Lou asks, having missed that during her time in Purgatory.
"We'll talk later," Sam assures her, looking to shelf that for one moment.
"Yes, Sam," Castiel explains, standing up and bringing Sammy and his stuffed dog with him. As the child gnaws at the dog's ear some more, the angel looks at Sam sincerely. "All soulmates are formed by Cupids at Heaven's order. You and Lou?" He shakes his head and shrugs. "We never had such orders."
"So... we're just a couple of people who love each other then… right?" Lou tries to shrug it off. "That shit happens every day."
"Well, that part is true. People do fall in love all the time, or at least they think they do," Castiel keeps explaining as if none of what he says is a big revelation. "But what you two have…." He looks back and forth between Sam and Lou a few times, contemplative look in place. "It's stronger than that."
"Seriously?" Lou scrunches her face, hating how this sounds.
"Yes. I'm always serious," Castiel breezily answers before sharply turning to Lizzy. "He smells unpleasant."
She shakes her head with the sudden topic change. "Yeah, uh… he probably needs to be changed."
"Ah, self-control," Castiel suddenly understands. "Something not mastered for the first few years of a child's life. Or maybe more." Castiel gives Lizzy a knowing look.
"Shut up," Lizzy tells him with sharp annoyance as she takes her son from his arms.
Dean's eyes go wide when he can tell there's something there. "What're you talking about, Cass?"
"Nothing," Lizzy snaps, grabbing Sammy's baby bag. "He's not talking about anything."
"That's not true. I'm speaking of your childhood issues with…."
"Cass!" she shouts while horrified to try and stop him.
"What?" Castiel wonders innocently, not picking up on her fear. "Many children face issues with bedwetting, some longer than even you did."
"What!?" Dean lights up brightly, staring at his wife with a grin. This detail doesn't compute.
"Watch it," she warns him with her face of irritancy.
Dean just smirks and keeps going. "You were a freakin' bed-wetter!?"
Lizzy grits her teeth and closes her eyes. "I was a kid. It was in my sleep. I couldn't help it."
"And she's had quite the solid handle on it since the age of nine." Castiel says it with such pride that Lizzy could almost be convinced he's bragging despite it being nothing to brag about.
Once he says it the room goes quiet, Lizzy hanging her head with a sigh. She waits for the onslaught but nothing happens. She then looks around the room. "What? Nothing?"
No one speaks still. They don't know what to say about the hard-ass hunter/mother bear/walking anger management issue that wet the bed until such an old age.
"Come on! Get it over with!" Lizzy yells finally, unable to wait any longer.
Dean busts out laughing right then, unable to hold back. "Holy shit! That can't be true!"
"It's totally true," Lou laughs finally, letting loose and airing the secret she's kept for years. "She peed on me at a sleepover once. While we were sleeping."
"Lou! Shut up!" Lizzy gets ticked off at her sister.
"You're mad at me!?" Lou asks with audacity, eyes wide. "The fucking angel's the one that spilled the beans, not me!"
"You're not helping!"
"I helped for years! I never told anyone!"
"Fuck everyone," Lizzy mumbles and takes Sammy and his diaper bag up to the second floor of the cabin to change him and get a reprieve from the taunting.
The second she's gone, Dean looks at Lou with a dropped jaw. "I don't even know what to say."
"Move past it, dude," Lou warns with a giggle. "She'll be so pissed if you keep it up. That's her skeleton in the closet."
"Seriously? That's the big one?" Dean wonders and Lou nods yes. He then makes a face.
"Got a few bigger skeletons of your own there, Dean?" Lou cocks an eyebrow.
"His closet is a completely filled walk-in… check this out," Sam says, face buried in the notebook Kevin gave them. He's ready to move on, get this all done, and get some semblance of a life back. He reads a direct translation. "Leviathan cannot be slain but by a bone of a righteous mortal washed in the three bloods of the fallen. Uh... it says we need to start with the blood of a fallen angel."
All three hunters look right at Castiel where he stands.
The angel smiles softly. "Well, you know me." He produces a small glass bottle in his hand. "I'm always happy to bleed for the Winchesters." He grips it into his fist and suddenly it's filled with his own angelic blood. He walks over to Lou and Sam and makes a snap decision. "Here," he hands it to Lou. "I feel like maybe you're less likely to drop or lose it for some reason."
"Uh…" Lou starts, surprised by this. "Thanks."
Castiel shares a small smile at that. He hopes he's making his way to a better place with her.
"What are you gonna do, Cass?" Dean asks as he stands next to the angel with a brand new attitude.
"I don't know," he answers back truthfully. He then grins. "Isn't that amazing?"
Castiel then disappears.
Lou shakes her head. "I'll never get used to that."
"Alright… well, let's get to work." Dean slaps Sam on the arm with a cautiously excited tone, feeling a touch of hope for the first time in a long time.